This Week in Cryptocurrency: November 02, 2018

Happy Birthday, Bitcoin! You Big 10 Year Old Baby!

Big week for the world’s most loved cryptocurrency as it turned ten years old on Wednesday (based on the publication date of the white paper). It’s amazing to look back and realize just how far Bitcoin has come in the past decade. Growing from a simple, unknown concept to being hailed as everything from a scam to the most influential invention ever, it’s clear that it has already made a significant mark on the world. Here’s to you, Bitcoin, and here’s to (at least) ten years more.

Unfortunately, the crypto market doesn’t feel the same way. The market fell victim to the classical inverted Bart chart pattern this week, but the rally towards the end wasn’t enough to leave us in the black. Over the week, the entire market cap fell from $208.7B to $206.0B, leaving us with a 1.29% loss.

Cryptocurrency Market Stats (11/2/18)

Our top three coins continue to show lackluster movement as well:

Bitcoin, the birthday boy, dropped 2.11% to just under $6,340.

Ethereum fell 1.94% and now sits at right below $200.

XRP bucked the falling trend with a 0.36% rise in price to around $0.46.

Crypto Millionaire Plans Blockchain Utopia: Earlier this week, the New York Times published on Jeffrey Burns, owner of Blockchains LLC, and his plans to create a blockchain utopia in the Nevada desert. Earlier this year, Burns bought an enormous plot of land in the area for $170 million – in cash. He plans to build a “distributed collaborative entity” on the land in which the decision making and profits are distributed among the employees, residents, and investors. His aim is to take the value of decentralization that exists in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and apply it to an entire community. That’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off.

People Saying Things

Ron Speaks Truth: Libertarian bad boy Ron Paul published a short article this past Monday titled Trump Is Right, the Fed Is Crazy. In it, he criticizes government-backed currency and central banks’ ability to “constantly increase and decrease the money supply in an attempt to control the economy by controlling the interest rates.” Although he didn’t mention Bitcoin or cryptocurrency at all, we can read between the lines. We know you’re a Bitcoin believer, Ronnie boy…

Jamie Don’t Care: At an Axios conference this week, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon stated that, in regard to Bitcoin, “I don’t really give a sh*t.” He went on to say that he believes blockchain technology to be real but doesn’t believe Bitcoin could replace a fiat currency. For a guy who supposedly doesn’t care about Bitcoin, he sure does talk about it a lot.

China Pulls the Ol’ Switcharoo: For what seems like the hundredth time, the Chinese government has once again changed its mind about Bitcoin’s legality. According to Chinese news site cnLedger, a Chinese court has confirmed that Bitcoin possession is protected by law. This ruling, from the Shenzhen International Court of Arbitration, outlines that both owning and transferring bitcoin in the country are legal activities.

1/ Chinese court confirms Bitcoin protected by law. Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration ruled a case involving cryptos. Inside the verdict: CN law does not forbid owning & transferring bitcoin, which should be protected by law bc its property nature and economic value.

Brazil Starts Collecting What’s Owed: You know what they say. In this world, nothing is certain except death and (Brazilian) taxes. The Brazilian Department of Federal Revenue published a document on Tuesday outlining new rules for cryptocurrency tax claims. One of the new rules: Crypto exchanges will now have to send in monthly reports on the transaction activity and identity of their customers. Additionally, both individual and institutional investors must report all transactions they’ve made on foreign exchanges if they total more than $2,700 in the month. The penalty for failing to report? Up to three percent of the transaction value.